Union Minister Shobha Karandlaje seeks NIA probe into arrest of Bengaluru terror suspects

Alleging that Congress-ruled Karnataka is treating the arrests of terrorists in Bengaluru as a small incident, Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Shobha Karandlaje on Friday said that the National Investigation Agency (NIA) should probe the case.

"The arrest of a few persons in Bengaluru by Karnataka police has revealed a larger conspiracy by global terror outfits to take up terror activities in the state and country as a whole," she told media persons here.

"It is a matter of concern that the state government adopted a casual approach in probing the case," she said.

Separately, she also requested Union Home Minister Amith Shah to entrust the case to NIA.

In a letter addressed to Shah, Karandlaje stated that the police have arrested five terrorists allegedly belonging to Lashker-E-Taiba in Bengaluru. A huge cache of arms, ammunition and four live hand grenades have been recovered from them. Their handler, Mohammad Junaid, who is absconding and is believed to be out of the country, is alleged to have supplied all these weapons to them. It is still unknown how he managed to ship arms and live grenades to Bengaluru, she said.

Considering the gravity of the situation, national security and the proliferation of criminals across far-off places, it would be prudent to hand over the investigation to NIA, which is best equipped to handle such cases and bring them to a logical conclusion. The NIA’s expertise in cracking such cases makes it, the ideal agency to take over this investigation immediately in the larger interest of the nation, Karandlaje said in the letter to Shah.